These inventions relate primarily to casino games, and more particularly to casino games such as video poker and slot machines. The present inventions use a randomly determined multiplier feature which is applied to each pay line of the casino game.
There are numerous casino games that utilize pay lines which designate the grouping of symbols that must form a winning combination in order for a player to receive a payout for his wager. One casino game that uses multiple pay lines is multiple hand video poker. Many slot machine games also use multiple pay lines.
Conventional video draw poker is a single player game in which the player does not play against a dealer or other players, but rather merely tries to achieve the highest possible poker hand ranking.
One of the most common variations of video draw poker is Five Card Draw poker. In general, in Five Card Draw poker, a player receives an initial hand of five cards dealt from a fifty-two card standard deck of playing cards. A standard deck of playing cards has four suits: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs; and each suit has thirteen ranks: Deuce, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, in order from lowest to highest.
The deck of playing cards is shuffled and an initial hand of five cards is dealt to a player. Once the initial hand is dealt to the player, the player can discard none, one, a plurality, or all of the five cards of the initial hand. Each discarded card is replaced with another card from the remaining cards of the deck. After the replacement cards are dealt to the player's hand, the player then has a final hand and the five cards of the final hand are evaluated to determine if there is a winning combination. Poker hand rankings are generally used as the criteria for determining winning combinations.
The conventional winning poker hand rankings that are used in video poker in order from highest to lowest category are: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks or better. Any hand having less than a Pair of Jacks or better is usually a losing hand. Within each poker hand ranking category, hands are ranked according to the rank of individual cards, with an Ace being the highest card and a Deuce being the lowest card. There is no difference in poker hand ranking between the four suits of cards.
A payout schedule or pay table is used to determine the amount awarded to the player for achieving a winning combination based on the amount wagered by the player.
Any suitable pay table can be used, and a typical pay table for a Jacks or Better Draw poker format return would be:
TABLE 1JACKS OR BETTER DRAW POKERNUMBER OF COINS BETPOKER HAND CATEGORY12345ROYAL FLUSH25050075010004000STRAIGHT FLUSH50100150200250FOUR-OF-A-KIND255075100125FULL HOUSE918273645FLUSH612182430STRAIGHT48121620THREE-OF-A-KIND3691215TWO PAIR246810JACKS OR BETTER12345
These winning poker hand rankings are used in the Jacks or Better draw poker format as well as many of the other draw poker formats. Most of the more recent modifications to video draw poker involve the use of different draw poker formats such as Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double-Double Bonus Poker and even Triple Bonus Poker. Different draw poker formats involve changes to the pay table and often involve using different poker hand rankings as winning hand combinations.
Other variations of draw poker exist which use jokers or wild cards, such as Deuces Wild poker and Jokers Wild poker. In Deuces Wild poker, any deuce in a player's hand functions as a wild card. Typically in Jokers Wild poker, when one or more jokers are added to a fifty-two card deck of cards, each joker also acts as a wild card.
In typical video draw poker games, a player receives five cards from a virtual standard deck of playing cards to form an initial player hand. The virtual deck of playing card replicates a traditional fifty-two card deck of playing cards. The player is able to discard none, one, some or all of the cards and the replacement cards for the discarded cards are drawn and displayed from the remaining cards of the virtual deck of cards. In a five card draw poker game, a player selects a hold input associated with a particular card to signify that they would like to keep that card. Any cards that are upheld are discarded. The discarded cards are replaced with cards from the remaining cards in the virtual deck to form the final player hand. The final player hand is compared to a pay table and the gaming system provides awards for a winning final hand based on the poker hand ranking of the player's final hand and the amount wagered.
Numerous variations of poker exist, including Five Card Draw poker, Five Card Stud poker, Seven Card Stud poker, Hold 'Em poker (also called Texas Hold 'Em poker), Omaha poker (also called Omaha Hold 'Em poker), and Pai-Gow poker. The variations in these games generally differ in the manner in which cards are dealt and in the manner and frequency in which bets are placed. The number of cards dealt and the ability to draw or replace cards depends on the particular variation of poker being played. Various criteria may also be used to determine the winning hand, including highest ranking hand, lowest ranking hand (Lo-Ball), and those games in which the high and low hands each win half of the pot (High-Low).
Many video poker gaming machines are provided with a menu so that the player can indicate his choice of the poker game format that the player wishes to play and the player then makes his wager based on upon that choice of poker game format. Each poker format has its own pay table associated therewith.
Newer video poker gaming machines allow the player to play multiple hands of video poker at the same time. Each hand of a multiple hand game of video poker is treated as a separate pay line. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 (Moody) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) describes a video gaming machine and method in which the player may play multiple hands at the same time. The player makes a wager for each separate hand to be played by the player. A first initial hand of five cards is dealt all face up. The player selects none, one, a plurality or all of the face up cards from the first hand as cards to be held. The cards that are held are reused from the first hand into all of the other hands. Replacement cards for the non-selected cards are dealt into the first hand so that the first hand has five cards. Additional cards are also dealt to all of the other hands so that each hand is a final five card hand. The poker hand ranking of each final five card hand is determined. The player is then paid for any winning poker hands based on a pay table and the amount of the player's wager.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,955,356 (Moody) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) also discloses and claims many variations of multiple hand video poker including multiple hands played at the same time and multiple hands played seriatim. Five cards initial poker hands are disclosed as well as less than five card initial poker hands. Multiple initial hands in which all of the cards are dealt face up and which some of the cards are dealt face up and the other cards dealt face down are also disclosed.
Another method of playing multiple hand video poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,568 (Hachquet) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein). In this method, two or more identical starting hands are displayed to the player. The player has the option of holding and discarding from each of these hands independently. The player is not required to hold the same cards in each hand. After the player has selected which cards to hold in each hand, replacement cards are displayed for the upheld cards and the poker hand ranking of each final hand is determined. Winning poker hand combinations are paid in accordance with a pay table and the amount wagered by the player.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,074 (Moody et al.), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, also discloses a method of playing multiple hand video poker in which each hand is played independently of the other hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,521 to Sanduski, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, discloses randomly applying a multiplier to a pay line based on the value of a multiplier card. Sanduski discloses using only a single multiplier value for a single hand of video poker. For example, when a player achieves a Four-of-a-Kind, the payout for this winning combination is multiplied by the value of the kicker card in the poker hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,247,092 to Jarvis et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, discloses the use of one or more multiplier cards added to a conventional deck of playing cards. Whenever a multiplier card appears during the play of a video poker game, the payout for any winning combination that is achieved is multiplier by the value of the multiplier card. This Jarvis feature has been commercialized in a game known as SUPER TIMES PAY which is marketed by IGT of Reno, Nev.
The Jarvis multiplier card feature has been applied to multiple hand video poker. For example, in TRIPLE PLAY SUPER TIMES PAY which is marketed by IGT of Reno, Nev., all pay lines are eligible for the same multiplier value should a multiplier card appear in the initial deal of the starting hand.
Slot machines also have one or more pay lines and for each pay line that has been activated by making a wager thereon, a player receives a payout whenever a winning symbol combination that appears on an active pay line.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,378 to Moody, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, discloses a multiple reel slot machine with multiple pay lines. The player makes a wager for each pay line that the player wishes to have activated for a particular round of play. The methods of the present invention may be practiced using the slot machine disclosed in this '378 patent as well as other slot machines which have multiple pay lines.
The present invention provides a method for applying separate multipliers to each pay line thereby adding a new and exciting wagering and winning feature for the player.